Howdy,
I have recently completely wiped the HDD on my 3 year old computer and installed Linux Mint Debian Edition (Mate) 32 bit ( 3.10-2-486 PAE). It ran well, but LMDE has their Update 8 for his package which I installed (per the notification icon at the bottom of my screen).

My problem: Now I can no longer change the screen resolution from 1600x1200 to a lower one. The Monitor screen offers the options of a lower resolution, but when i try to apply it, I get a one second black screen followed by a 20 - 30 sec white screen and then the screen returns to the control panel with the same resolution (1600x1200).

How can I change the monitor screen to a lower resolution?

Further info: 320 Gig HDD, AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ 2.5 GHz. and 2 Gigs of RAM.

I've tried installing LMDE (Mate) 64 bit, LMDE Cinnamon 32 bit) with the same result. Every time I install the Upgrade 8, I get the same problem. During install of the Upgrade 8,
I do get asked if I wish to replace config files (3 different ones). Could this be the problem?

Thank you for any help with this problem.
tlcmd (AKA Dick)

Any assistance or suggestions would be appreciated.

Hi Tlcmd what is your graphics card?

Drakeo, I'm a noobie here, so please pardon my ignorance. Thanks for the reply. How do I find the info on my graphics card? And since I can change the resolution prior to the upgarde package, would you please explain why that should make a difference? I'm not being "smart' here, I'm still learning and have this OS (LMDE Mate 32 bit with Upgrade 8) running well on another 13 year old computer with a 320 HDD, dual boot with Windows XP, Athlon 1.4 GHz chip and 1536 of RAM. SO you can understand my confusion and frustration. I can even install Windows XP here on this beastie making it a dual boot if that might help. I am totally lost here.
Thank you,
tlcmd (aka Dick)

I understand that you have wiped upgraded systems and the new systems leave you with a screen resolution you don not like. I tested LMDE 8 Mate the other day and I did not have to much problems. so if you could find the name and model of your monitor and graphics card it would be a plus.
just do me a favor and open a terminal and type lspci and copy paste in here. you may have to do a sudo lspci not sure on your system.

that should give me the info I need.And name and the model of your monitor.

linux mint add new screen resolution

Drakeo,
Sorry for the delay. Wife had fixed breakfaast (I'm in the USA eastern time zone).
Here is the result for sudo ispci The monitor is a 20 inch Samsung SyncMaster 204B

dick@library ~ $ sudo lspci
[sudo] password for dick:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/8251 PCI bridge [K8M890/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 07)
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.3 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.4 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge
00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/8251 Ultra VLINK Controller
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 7c)
00:13.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A Host Bridge
00:13.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE/K8N890CE [Chrome 9] (rev 11)
80:01.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A/VT8251 HDA Controller (rev 10)
dick@library ~ $

Thank you for your interest and help. Meanwhile I'll try setting the screen resolution as described in the link you sent: linux mint add new screen resolution

tlcmd (aka Dick)